Dean Strikwerda's end-of-year message

Carl Strikwerda, Dean of Arts & Sciences, sent the following end-of-year message to members of the faculty on May 16.

Dear
Arts & Sciences Colleagues:

Once
again, I would like to thank you for your hard work and professionalism in
serving our students this year. Arts & Sciences succeeds in educating
generations of young people and advancing discovery and creativity only because
of your dedication to excellence. It is an honor to work with you as
colleagues.

In
the face of our budgetary challenges, Arts & Sciences remains very strong
in the quality of its instruction, scholarship, and governance. With a new
strategic planning process in place and the worst of the recession behind us, I
believe we are poised to make progress in curricular reform and investments in
facilities and programs in the near future.

I
would like to welcome two new staff members and mention those deserving special
recognition.

Annette Arbogast has joined the Dean's Office as
Administrative Assistant. Annette studied court reporting at the American
Institute of Business in Des Moines, Iowa, and has worked in a wide variety of
administrative positions in the United States and overseas, including the
University of Iowa Hospitals and the Drug Enforcement Administration of the
Department of Justice. Along with her administrative skills, she has advanced
knowledge of Spanish. Annette will be responsible for the dean's calendar,
support for faculty meetings, and reception for the Dean's Office.

Steve Mount has joined the Arts & Sciences
Development Office as a Major Gifts Officer.
Steve comes to us from Cornell University, where he served as Senior
Individual Giving Associate in the Department of Principal Gifts. His
development experience includes work as the Director of Major Gifts at SUNY
Tompkins Cortland Community College as well as campaign planning for Historic
Ithaca, Inc. He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Georgia. In addition
to seeking support for priorities across Arts & Sciences, he will have
responsibility for major gifts fundraising for arts departments and programs
and the Muscarelle Museum.

Arts & Sciences administrative
staff members have had significant milestones:

Sylvia
Stout, Budget Manager, Physics, has worked for the College an incredible 41
years.

Employee of
the Month Award Recipients:

Kathy Morgan, Psychology, November, 2009

Sharon Palma, Modern Languages and Literatures,
March, 2010

Congratulations
to Sylvia, Kathy, and Sharon!

Committee Service in Arts
& Sciences:

Faculty
governance at the College demands significant amounts of time and energy.
Besides the many hours invested in committees and advising within departments
and programs, the following committees in Arts & Sciences required
major commitments from their members:

Despite
the current recession, Arts & Sciences continues to make progress in
fundraising. I am particularly pleased that two friends of the College, Roy
Hock and Margaret Fowler, chose to honor Bill Kelso, the archeologist who
discovered the remains of the Jamestown Fort and who received his M.A. in
History from the College, by creating an endowed graduate fellowship, the
William Kelso Graduate Fellowship in Early American Studies.